One thing us retired entrepreneurial company founders like to do is think up new potential start-ups. Luckily for me, I’ve started a little think tank that has several of us on board. Lucky also for you, if you want to start a business, we don’t mind sharing our ideas with you, heck maybe you can get some funding and make a go of it, do something great, fill a niche and be the next successful start-up entrepreneur out there. I wish you well.

Okay so here is a recent idea we came up with, actually it is an old idea, rehashed. There have actually been some franchises that do this. This has a different twist. Do you know how rest stops along the highway sometimes have vendors selling food? Usually, someone has a deal with the state and gets a license to do business there? How about a mobile food truck that serves up Lattes, Mochas and Espresso – high-end coffee?

One of our think tankers suggested we call it “R and R” and try to get it licensed in all states.

Indeed, there are mobile restaurants in every state almost – some have purposely made it tough on the sector due to restaurant industry lobbyists. I like the name idea, and I had once prepared a business plan for my brother’s company – the potential company would have been named Jumping Java – with on-site corporate parking lot delivery. The runners would take the orders and deliver the coffee inside the company. R&R might be a good name, but some people drink coffee to pep-up and not to rest or relax, so that might not be the right name. Unless you told them the name was for “Ramp-up and Race-Forward” or something. Well, it would be a huge logistic nightmare, you’d need commissaries for the mobile units, home bases, required by law.

You’d need permission where to park, licenses in every city, most cities have ordinances for what they might deem street vendors thus, controlling when and where you can set up. Each state is required by law to send it out to bid, and then the lowest common denominator, minority company paying ridiculously low wages would be competing with you while their employees lives 10 people to a house, and they got a 15% bid advantage for being a minority or woman owned business, and an SBA loan, that others could not get.

Then the government would PR the crap out of it telling everyone how some Bozo Congressman was providing jobs. It would be a nightmare to deal with the state. Worse, they often close the rest stops for no reason, and you’d be out of business for that time period. Then there is the crime issue, and angry people that the bathrooms are not cleaned, even though that isn’t your fault. You should see the stuff that goes on at rest stops. Although having someone there selling something does add a level of safety, because people are there.

One think tanker noted; “Sometimes there are people giving free coffee at rest areas trying to make their roads safer.”

Yes, I’ve seen that, and I am in favor of it. Maybe the state would pay for just plain “free black coffee” and you could sell the higher-end coffee drinks or, the state gives you free rent, if you give the cheap black coffee out for free and then are free to sell the expensive stuff. Be Great, Don’t Hesitate.

When you receive an inheritance, it is important to figure out what will you do with that money. If you do not plan properly on how to spend that money, it will slip out of your hand within no time. If you have already got the cash, or you are about to inherit the money, here are some five tips for using it properly.

Don’t Rush Your Decision

People generally do not allow the money for a cooling-off period, after receiving the cash. This is one of the worst mistakes that people usually do. They are always in a hurry of spending the money without thinking twice. You can save the money either in a money market account or savings for at least two months in order to plan your options. You can also put the money into a short-term deposit for saving it, because you have to pay penalty if you withdraw it before time.

Assess Where You Are

If you analyse your present financial situation, you can get an idea about your future move. You can plan to start a college fund for your children, add the money to your retirement savings or keep it as an emergency fund. Make a goal in life, so that you can achieve it with the help of your inheritance.

Be Realistic About Your Inheritance

A sudden chunk of money will you lead to towards a changed lifestyle. The things like a new car or a luxury vacation that you could not afford before will now seem to be very tempting. You have to be careful to control your temptation and save your money for future needs.

Establish Boundaries

It is evident that when you receive an inheritance, many people come with a try to have a share in the money. Bank or financial sales people may call you so that you invest your money in their products. You may also be asked to make a huge donation by any charitable organisation. So, it is very important to set boundaries and prepare yourself for saying no to the people.

Be Proactive

You may need some professional help to figure out how to save your inheritance. It is absolutely fine to hire a financial advisor, but do not make your decision solely as per his guidance. In the end, it will be you who will take the final decision. Do some research and set your goals before taking professional’s help.

Thus, though an inheritance is like a blessing to you, but along with it comes responsibility. Plan properly to make sure that your money lasts for a longer time.

Posted inhomepage|Comments Off on Best Tips to Avoid Squandering Your Inheritance

Nowadays, marketing is everything, without a proper strategy and resources for advertising your company will not produce the results that you expect. In order to create these, you will also need a nice crafted, good looking product and of course, a custom box for packaging and shipping, because look matters. Most importantly look sells, so if you want to boost your product sales than be sure you create a unique and professional image of your product using custom boxes, that fits your product and adds a visual impact that determines customers to buy it. Let’s see how your custom box should look, in order to make a hit.

What colors should I use?
Well, statistics shows that for every type of product you should use a different color, that matches the product description. For example:

For food industry is recommended to use red, because it is found in many fresh products.

Brown can be used for furniture and wooden objects because it represents the natural color of the wood.

Green in usually associated with ecological products, so if your business is anything about environment protection this is your color.

Black can be used for household objects or miscellaneous things, it inspires confidence and control, this way showing you rule the market.

White it is associated with cleaning products because when you see white usually means cleanliness.

You can combine as many colors as you want and you obviously don’t have to respect these rules but as I said, these matches the products description so these should be your first options. But color isn’t everything, style counts too so we are heading to

How should my box look and what style should I choose?
Since now minimalist look is more and more appreciated, I think that this is the best approach. Also, text logo is a trend too so keep your custom box simple but elegant, to look professional, and to guarantee you a success.

A box loaded with too many information will scare the customers and will create a less attractive design.

Using multiple colors for my box
For the minimalist design, it is recommended to use a combination of 2 colors, one for the text and one for the background, usually, a good choice is to associate red and black, or white and gold. This colors create an elegant look and add more value to the product.

You can go for white and red too, or light green and pink, there are endless possibilities to make your custom box look very appealing are stylish, and also a high contrast between the colors will create an awesome effect and it will immediately attract customers.

You can use as many colors as you want but I don’t think you want your box to look like a rainbow. Keep it simple and you will succeed.

What type of box should I use?
There are many types but you have to choose one that makes your product stand out. For example, you can use Corrugated Trays for food, a Regular Slotted Container for small objects or a Full Over Lap for heavy items, choose the one that matches your product.

Be aware of how your product looks, it is very important to attract your first-time customers by the look of your product and then by the quality.

Posted inhomepage|Comments Off on How Can a Packaging Custom Box Increase Your Sales and Attract More Customers?

3D scanning is a process of capturing digital information of object shape using equipment that has light or laser to measure distance between the object and the scanner. The non-destructive and non-contact scanning technology uses lines of laser light capturing the exact shape and size of the object. The fine details of even the smallest objects are captured and the process comes in handy in so many industries and fields. Some the areas that 3D scans are commonly used include automotive, manufacturing, medical and aerospace.

3D laser scanners capture thousands of points per second, allowing quick inspection of parts. It is a process that is ideally suited for measuring and inspecting contoured surfaces and also complex geometries that require lots of data for accurate description and where traditional measurement methods are impractical.

What are the advantages?

3D scanning has become very popular among business people in different fields. You can now easily find 3D scanning services for all needs you might have especially as far as accuracy and high quality productions are concerned. The popularity of the process is as a result of the many advantages it has over other traditional options. Some of the advantages that come with the process include:

1. Quick capture of all physical measurements of any given physical object; with 3D scanning, the size of the object does not matter.

2. Saves time when designing. The high definition details of objects make it possible for designers get it right with the first trail, hence saving time, even with productions that would have otherwise proved to be complex and time consuming.

3. Ensures perfect fit of parts with the first try. 3D has literally taken the guess work of production processes, especially for those dealing with prototypes and creating parts. The detailed information collected from an object is accurate and hence it is very rare to have parts that have any functional defects.

4. It captures engineering optimization that is necessary in manufactured parts. The process offers more confident to manufacturers in terms of meeting standards and any set objectives in the manufacturing process of parts. Using the scans, it has become even possible for manufacturers and designed to compare between designed and built models conditions so manufactured parts are top quality.

How does it help the design process?

3D scans are largely used in the design process of various products. Model scanning proves beneficial in the design process because:

· It increases effectiveness when working with shapes and parts that are complex

· It provides updated versions of CAD models that are outdated

· It makes it possible to replace missing parts or older parts

· It helps product designing so that someone else’s part can be accommodated

Which areas can in be used in?

3D scanning is very effective and has become a popular option in various fields including:

· Historical artifacts

· Prototyping or reverse engineering

· Entertainment industry for games, TV and movie productions

· Medical and dental

· Inspection

· Marine

· Construction and architecture

A 3D scan can prove highly beneficial in different sectors. If you do not have what it takes to enjoy the accuracy of 3D scans, you can get help from service providers who offer all kinds of scanning services.

If you go to most of big retailers, you will see that they have electronically tagged their expensive goods. It’s possible to tag all the products including beauty products and alcohol. Usually, retail stores use security tags to secure items that are most commonly stolen. As a matter of fact, security tags offer a simple solution for businesses to secure their stock. Read on to know more about it.

How security tags work

In simple words, security tags are designed to send an alert when products at a store are moved through a security barrier. These tags are put on the product packages. When a shoplifter tries to steal the package and passes through the barrier, the tag will turn on the alarm sending an alert to the security.

The staff at the store can detach or deactivate the tags for their customers. So, their genuine customers won’t face any embarrassing situation. The fact of the matter is that these tags prevent shoplifters from lifting stuff from retail stores. As said before, these tags can be used on any product sold at the stores. Given below are 5 major benefits of these tags.

5 Great Benefits of Tags for security

1. Affordable

Since security tags are sold in bulk, you can get discount when buying them. While they may cost you a good amount of money, you will save a great deal of money in the long run. The protection you will get is worth the investment. That’s the reason the product is an effective solution for small as well as large businesses.

2. Ease of use

The great thing about the product is that it is very easy to use. This means that you can use them on a wide range of products. While they are easy to apply, they can’t be removed without a special device called a deactivator. So, the shoplifters won’t be able to remove them.

3. Easy deactivation

With a deactivator, it’s easy to remove the tags in a few seconds. So, your customers don’t need to wait for the tags to be removed before they leave your store. Unlike other gadgets, security tags are not complex items.

4. Peace of mind

With security tags on each product at a store, the staff and customers will have a peace of mind. All the staff at a store will be able to focus on their jobs as they will have peace of mind that any attempt to steal the products will be detected. Moreover, the customers will also be satisfied that they are in a safe store.

5. Reliability

Security tags are very reliable as they can’t be removed without the special device known as the deactivator. Once the deactivator is removed, the tag won’t set the alarm off when the customer will pass it through the security barrier. So, the devices are 100% reliable. There will be no surprises.

So, if you run a store and want to improve the security system at your store, you may want to consider installing tags.

Almost everyone has some form of social media whether it be for business or fun, people can pretty much find anyone they want to find and check them out. In this article, you are going to learn how using social media can affect your MLM business.

Social media can be a great asset to you and help you attract more team members and customers or social media can make people run from you like you have a disease. Before you post something on social media, just remember that unless you have a certain privacy setting on your content, anyone will be able to see it. The truth is that if you post it on the internet, people that you might not want to see it can probably get to it anyway.

When you are serious about building an MLM business, you have to run a great media company. You need to be able to show people who you are in a good light so they will be proud to work with you. Would you partner in business with someone if you weren’t proud to work with them? Probably not.

Clean It Up

I can’t tell you how many times I go to people’s social page just to find out that I cannot find one picture of them on their timeline. Many times their profile picture is a dog, cat or one of their kids. Since I have no idea who this person is or why they want to be friends, I just ignore the invite.

If you want to have people accept your friend requests or request to be friends with you then you want to have a clean social profile so that people know what who is behind the profile.

Controversy

If you want to build a strong social presence then you don’t want to be arguing with people back and forth over controversial topics. Save that for your close friends because no one wins an internet back and forth.

Now you know how social media can affect your MLM business. I hope you clean it up and are using social media in a way that can help your business and not hurt your business.

Posted inhomepage|Comments Off on How Using Social Media Can Affect Your MLM Business

I love the technology of the day. No more hassling friends and family, no more 3 foot rule, no more inviting everyone you know over to your house so your sponsor can “show the plan”, no more winding up being a member of the NFL club. And no, sports fans, I’m not talking about the National Football League.

In this case I’m referring to the NFL club as for NO FRIENDS LEFT club.

Trust me, back in the day your friends didn’t even want to see you coming because they knew you were going to try and sell them on looking at your business. And before you knew it… no friends left.

Thank God for the Internet. Now, even the most introverted guy or gal has a shot at building a downline that could pay them the extra money to make a car payment or afford the vacation of their dreams.

And this brings me to the question I asked you earlier. Parallel Marketing?

Parallel Marketing is when you offer someone something of value that other networker’s need which, in turn, helps them build THEIR business. This brands you in their eyes as someone they can trust. Therefore developing a bond of friendship between you and them.

I believe the FREE resource I’ve found is perfect for Parallel Marketing and thus helping you build YOUR business.

And to think I found this resource by accident. One night I was speaking with a fellow networking friend who asked me as to whether or not I had ever heard of a site that was ideal for networking. I responded with no, never heard of it. Anyway, I took his advice and went over to the site and started reading some of the comments of its members. Then I noticed some of the members kept talking about this new site. I figured I had better check the site out too. Next thing I knew, I was signing up as a free member, then happily upgrading.

The resource below will help you increase enrollments into YOUR business. Plus there is actual training that’s afforded to you too! And right now, for a limited time you can sign up for free and receive a Lifetime membership.

Anyway… here’s the link to hear an industry veteran explain what could very well be the secret to your business exploding within the next few months.

Posted inhomepage|Comments Off on Have You Ever Heard of Parallel Marketing?

Humans require clean, easy-to-breath air in order to live. And just like humans, vehicles also need to be able to “breathe” clean air in order to survive. While human lungs make it possible to breathe, a vehicle’s air filters do just the same. But after some time, they begin to accumulate mass amounts of dirt, debris, and other airborne particles, which eventually decreases their quality and function. For this reason, it is critical to have your vehicle’s engine and cabin air filters inspected and changed on a routine basis to promote safe and efficient driving. Continue reading to learn more about the importance of routine automotive filter changes.

Air Filters

Keep in mind that your car’s air filters are your first line of defense against irritating and obstructive airborne contaminants. Dirt, dust, pollen, mold spores, exhaust gases, bacteria, and more are examples of airborne contaminants that have the ability to negatively affect the quality and performance of your engine and vehicle as a whole. And according to Community Car Care, there is a 1 in 5 chance that YOUR car needs an air filter change right now! Many drivers are guilty of overlooking this small but highly-necessary scheduled maintenance.

Engine Damage

The long list of airborne contaminants can have a powerful impact on your vehicle’s engine, and in a very negative way. Everything from pistons, cylinders, and cylinder walls, to piston rings and bearings, are just a few areas of a car engine that can begin to lose performance value from clogged or dirty air filters. Over time, neglecting to change them can lead to serious engine malfunctions and breakdowns, which means frustrating, costly repairs.

Cabin Filters

If you like to have clean, breathable interior air that smells good, you need to change your air filters on a routine basis. Once they start to become clogged, they begin to slowly lose their ability to do their job. So once they are entirely clogged, you can suffer some mild but irritating consequences, such as musty smells, sore throat, coughing, itchy eyes, tightening of the chest, and more. Changing them regularly keeps the interior environment of your car fresh and easy to breath.

Schedule

Refer to your vehicle’s owners’ manual for the manufacturer recommendations on factory scheduled maintenance. The general rule of thumb is to have your air filters inspected and changed every time you take your car in for an oil change. In fact, it is often a part of oil change packages. This should be every 3,000 miles or so. Talk to your mechanic for professional advice.

Posted inhomepage|Comments Off on The Importance of Automotive Filter Changes

With many different social media platforms to choose from, your head may be spinning and you could be confused about which ones to use and why you would use them. In this article, we are going to talk about how to make social media an asset for your network marketing business.

Network marketing is very much a business of influence and emotion. If people don’t feel like working with you or they don’t feel like buying from you then they won’t. There are plenty of other people they can find your product and service through and that is why you want to use social as an asset to get in front of more people and help them choose you.

Building Know, Like & Trust

If people feel like they know, like and trust you because they have been following you on social, they are much more likely to buy from you than someone they just met. Social media can be used to share inspiring messages, family photos, dreams, and goals. Share these things with people and you they will be more likely to do business with you. This is one of the ways to make social an asset for your business.

Getting In Front of More Eyeballs

Social media helps you get in front of more people. Having a consistent social presence will help you leverage this virtual real estate to share your message with people. Instead of having to run around all over the place in your car, you can find people through social media and generate sales and new team members online.

It is very simple to be able to build social media into an asset but you have to be consistent. You at least want to post once a day so that you can stay top of mind with your audience.

Posted inhomepage|Comments Off on How to Make Social Media an Asset for Your Network Marketing Business